I Used an atm in a bank in Jamaica. A security guard in full body armor carrying an automatic rifle opened the door for us and locked the door behind, stood in front of the locked door facing the street, and when we were through, unlocked the door and escorted us to the taxi 10 feet away from the door.

I traveled to Azerbaijan (Baku) and the banks there all have dudes with AK47's. One bank had a dude with an AK and a stack of money so tall it stretched from his cupped hand right up his arm to about his bicep. I must have been millions of dollars. Of course the country is pretty much owned by a dictator, and his family lived on the same street as the bank I was in. So I imagine there were rivers of money flowing around this city and I just happened to witness a very small part of normal life there for the elites.

Hey my friend lives there! Told me you can only be rich if the government let's you. Haha ridiculous. His dad owns a statue making company and the government pays him what ever they think is appropriate.

I couldn't tell you, they live a pretty middle-class life so I'm assuming he's doing good enough for the government to compensate them enough to feed his family and roof them. Especially since they sent my friend to America to study for two years.

know a few people this happened to in New York City (Van Cortland Park in the Bronx) as well... one was out jogging and had no cash on him during a mugging so the guy walked him to his car and made him drive to the ATM and take out the maximum it would allow.

I heard of a couple that it happened to in the UK. The thieves broke in, forced to them to a local ATM just before midnight and draw out the max. Wait 2-3 mins till post midnight and draw the max again. That's £1200

I remember a Starcraft commentator had this happen to him in China a couple of years back, I believe it was Mr Bitter. He took it well and still casted the tournament he was scheduled for, but it sounded pretty intense when he described the situation.

Now come to India. Dudes in petrol bunks (gas station) would be handling like 1000's of dollars in cash and there won't be an armed guard for like 5 kms in any direction.

Banks? One potbellied dude with a WW1 vintage .303 rifle for "security".

Jewelry stores that might pull in 2-3 mn on a good day (this is like 8-10mn adjusted for India)? Maybe one 60 year old guy with an ancient shotgun that may or may not work. Even Cash vans are normal cars, maybe with a little beefing up. Two guys with these ancient rifles inside for security. I have even delivered cash in a 2 wheeler at night when I was working with a bank (granted this was in the early 2000's). ATM out of cash? Get cash from the vault, sign for it. Drive to the ATM in a dinky 100 cc bike, hand over the tech, get sign and get back. No hassle

Tbh, unless it's been sitting in horrid conditions since the war, a WW1 rifle will be fine as long as you have the right ammo for it. The rifles weren't automatic but they'll still put a hole in a would-be robber.

Basically I was traveling alone on a gap year and got into a cab outside of the airport. It was an authorized and licensed taxi with an I’d hanging where I could see it. I tried to negotiate a price with him and he said he would do a lower price but had to turn the meter off. I agreed (bad move). Then he started talking cheerfully and showing me things as we drive past them, an unofficial tour of sorts. Eventually he pulled into a dark street where 3 guys surrounded the car, one had a bat, and the taxi driver turned around with a gun (not pointed at me) and explained that I could get out now or he could take me to an ATM where he would be happy with as much cash as my atm limit would allow and no more. He apologized a lot and said that he knows it’s not fair but ‘I have more money than him, and he needs it more than me’. He kept a pretty cheerful attitude, which I later realized was most likely a trained manipulation tactic to keep me calm and to make me feel like the best thing to do was to go to the ATM. So I did. I don’t think I had much choice. Also, my arm was in a sling because I was recovering from a broken rotator cuff surgery a handful of weeks prior.

The crazy part was using the ATM and then getting back in his car because I was in a dark and shitty area where nobody would pick me up. So I just decided to go for it. He gave me a ride to my hotel after robbing me. He apologized the whole way. Also, he only asked for the equivalent of 200 usd, and most atm limits are higher, but I only took out 200. Fuck him.

Then he didn’t want to take me to my place. He said it was a gross and seedy place. He said I should reconsider unless I wanted to pick up prostitutes. I chose that place on the fly as I arrived at the airport and I based my decision off of trip advisor reviews and price - I just needed a place for a day or two until I could decide what to do. (It’s worth noting that I like to arrive in countries with no plan whatsoever, to just wing it and see where the current takes me. It’s something I still recommend) When we got to my hotel, he dropped me off about a block away. As I walked up, armed guards came to me, initially as if I were a dangerous person in the night approaching the hotel, but when I told them I had a reservation they asked me if the taxi robbed me (because I was dropped off a block away instead of at the hotel). I told them that he did rob me and that he had a gun.

The guards called some other guy, a boss of sorts. It should be mentioned that this hotel was total shit and very seedy - the taxi guy might have been telling me the truth. The boss guy promptly offered me prostitutes and when I declined, it was like he didn’t believe me and so he sent some girls to my room with a bucket of beers (on the house). I told them to leave. They were offended. Whatever. I kept the beers and enjoyed them.

I think that's a lame excuse for lottery companies to claim these days. Instead they should just have 3rd party accounting companies audit all the winnings and ensure no fraudulent activity. No one needs to know who won, no one gets murdered.

and they paid for a someone to shadow him the entire time during ticket transit, except for the fact that this was a complete waste of money, because this person sat in coach while he was in first class, and this person was a woman so could not follow him to the bathroom (Jerry’s own words in the article). And Jerry would go to the bathroom and switch out the tickets knowing she couldn’t follow him.

Like, if that’s your entire logic... you deserve to be scammed. It sounded like he ran a very, very poorly run scam. However, the system in place was just so dumb it allowed it.

It's not even robbery. Watch some documentaries about the mega millions winners. The cities where they live practically hound them and pressure them for donations. "What, you don't want to buy our police dept new cruisers? We really could use it." Charities hound them. People hound them for hand outs - not just relatives, literally hundreds of people from around the country.

I do know an exception to that: people who manage to sell their startups.

I know a few people who managed to get maybe a few million dollar acquisitions for companies they started, and they complained about family members coming out of the woodwork to ask to borrow money once it got out.

The big difference between them and most lottery winners, though, is that they had already learned how to manage their finances, how little the money actually goes, and how to tell their family no.

Anyone know what happened to that guy from the UK who posted about his friend pranking him that he won the lottery andeveryone asked him for money. and itgot to the point where he had to go to the newspaper to tell his story?

My Jamaican friends explain to me this is what one should do there. Rough country.

As a Canadian this blows my mind. I have met the most amazing Jamaicans. Kind, considerate, fun, friendly, giving, warm and extremely reliable. Apparently these folks are different in the homeland? Impossible to imagine.

The requirement is for public accountability, so the lottery can't just say "Yeah sorry you didn't win again but we TOTALLY paid out that 850 million jackpot to somebody somewhere. They go to another school though, so you don't know them. Next month it's going to be like I dunno 10 billion or something, so make sure to buy lots more tickets!"

For every beautiful soul crafted out of hardship, there is another with questionable morals, formed by the same difficulties.

Edit: Thanks for the gold and silver. :)

It's just one of those observations you make. I lived in the slums of the Philippines and I saw so many people without anything to their name offer me food that they could barely pay for and had to split with numerous other people in their family, just because I said I was hungry or they just invited me out of the kindness of their heart.

It's humbling and it taught me a lot. I was and am a selfish person by nature, but these experiences made me rethink things and I try to give what I can, when I can. Pay it forward, as it were.

On the flipside, I was in the presence of drugdealers who asked me to drugrun (I never did), gang members who'd stab you without blinking, and unfortunately, some murders. It taught me to stay low-key and careful. I still am that careful to this day in the US.

In L.A. a few years ago some idiots broke into a $100,000 lottery winner's house the same week he won, expecting $100,000 cash or some giant novelty check they could cash, killed the guy in the struggle and left with nothing.

And Jamaica is definitely less lawful than most of L.A.

For all you nay-sayers, knee jerk virtue signalers and overall reactionary dinguses, the measured murder rate in Jamaica is 58. Los Angeles is 6, per 100,000. Nearly 10 fucking times greater.

I live in Quebec, and they definitely don't allow keeping your identity a secret:

By signing your ticket, you agree to allow Loto-Québec to publish, if it deems it appropriate, your name, region and photo.

Your winnings may be broadcast on our website, our office intranet, digital screens located in our different points of sale, billboards or other outdoor advertising as well as on any other communications network, including social media.

If they DO take your photo, your face has to be uncovered, and they don't "permit overt theatrics".

Still no idea why they're showing this shit on TV though. If they really want to prove people do win with their lottos it's not that hard to blur their faces or something. What they're doing now is like putting a bounty on the winners' heads.

Which is why you put it in a trust that not even you can access with a gun to your head, and you tell everyone what you're doing. "The money is in a trust that I literally can't access, it is being invested, we are all being paid out from the trust over time unless you do something to be removed from the trust."

Happened in Georgia as well. Guy won a good amount. He was then selected by robbers because he was publicly named. They invaded his home and held him up in front of his wife and kid and he pleaded not to kill him in front of them.

They killed him anyway. Lotto winners should absolutely have the right to not have their identities made public.

In Australia, the Opera House was actually funded by a lottery (us Aussies love our gambling) but sadly the child of the winners was abducted and held for ransom, and subsequently murdered. Bit of dark history behind one of our most iconic landmarks.

This shit makes no sense. You can follow so many different people that are rich as fuck and do the same. Any pro athlete or any business man leaving their office in $300k cars. Etc. if you plan on robbing and killing someone there’s more of them to pick from than lotto winners.

Depending on the amount won, if it's in the millions, hire an armed security team for the first year or more depending on how many millions. If it's a few hundred thousand, that's a good time to go on an extended vacation, and move/change your name when you return.

Here in Ireland, you have an option not to go public in case of a large lotto win. Just quietly go to the Lotto HQ up in Dublin, show some ID and money will be in your account in less then a week, tax free. I once won 15 grand and when I went to collect, I was offered an extra €500 to announce it in local paper, under my name, stating the shop that I bought the ticket in. The shop gets announced anyways, though. I'd say if you score a jackpot, they'll probably offer some kinda money to go public, as well. I don't think I'll be doing that, though. If I ever win Euromillions, I'll be gone like a fart in a wind and only immediate family will know.

Can confirm! Not from Jamaica but another Caribbean nation and it's all the same. Here in my country they don't even post who won the lotto anymore just to keep people safe. And the majority of police officers are cooked.
Edit was gonna change "cooked" to "crooked" but what the hell ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Blowing through a bunch of money really is a thing. In my early 20’s I worked at a grocery store with a guy we’ll call Bob. I’ll try and keep this short.

One day I walked into the dairy cooler to do whatever it is I was going to do, when I walked in I found Bob slumped over passed out with a bottle of jack Daniels with a little left (took it from the liquor department). I couldn’t wake him so I got a manager and they called the cops and hauled him off. How did Bob get to that point?

He was one of the founders of “tigers milk” (one of those protein bars). Bob sold his share for a cool $10,000,000! His ex wife and him spent all that money on shit like crazy expensive vacations, Indian motorcycles, jewelry, drugs and what not. Kept spending until he found himself as a restocker at a supermarket with a heavy drinking problem. . . .

I should of put this in the original post but I caught up with him a few years later and he was doing worlds better than when I found him in that cooler. He was even part of a start up for a locally named protein bar that is delicious. He even brought me on board to help out a bit with some sales and warehouse (rented an unused part of a local coffee shops warehouse) packaging and whatnot. Something happened between him and his partner and he opted out. Problem was he was paying me under the table so I didn’t even know the other guy, when they split I lost contact with Bob. Dude still owes me $120.

I think it's super fucked up that in most places, you have to publicly claim lotto jackpots. Fiscally responsible people generally don't play, and the poors that win either aren't savvy enough or can't afford to set up a trust/corporation to claim the money through, so their name and face is plastered all over any and everything the lotto commission sees fit, while winning the lottery has been their retirement plan. It's no wonder most of them end up broke.

It's so absurd that they publicize who the lottery winners are and don't leave an anonymity option. They are literally forcing people to at worst, become the focus of violent crime plots, and at best probably put severe strain on personal relationships

My father taught us all from a young age that if we ever won the lottery, we needed to move out of state as soon as the paperwork was done and go underground. To avoid so called "family," and to avoid having loved ones kidnapped and held hostage.

Am Jamaican living in Jamaica and can confirm that lottery winners go to extremes to hide their identities. The funny thing is, people eventually find out who they are. But that's not the point... The point is, they eventually become their own downfall. I know of a dude who lives a couple blocks from me. He threw a massive party that blew most or all his money.

Honestly would do the same (even though I don’t gamble and have never bought a powerball ticket), but hypothetical i would never let anyone know, not even family. I would write each family member million dollar checks and lie about my investments.

In American we have a fucking TV show where you get to meet the lotto winner, the winner’s family, their kids, the house they live in and they tell you how much money they won. What the Fuck? They might as well hang a bullseye on their front door

Show is called “my lottery dream home” and it’s insane nobody has been robbed yet

Honestly, really smart. I don't know about Jamaica, but at least in Belieze, it super common for people to find a washed up brick of cocaine, get super rich, and then immediately get murdered. Often times by distant relitives.

Dude, read up on the fate of many lotto winners right here in the US and I might not be above doing this.

From what I've read scammers come out of the woodwork to try and steal just a little cash. And there have been murders, attempted murders, and more. Yeah, if I ever won the lotto I'd take a pay cut off I had to in order to stay anonymous.

Lotto winners should be able to collect in peace. There's no reason to win the lottery, then immediately go into hiding for fear of kidnappers, robbers, murder threats, and everyone who has ever spoken to you or has a cause to hound you every day for the rest of your life.

This guy clearly doesn't want it public, so they take and distribute pictures anyway.

In 2018, Jamaica had a murder rate of 47 per 100'000. second highest in the whole of the Caribbean. In the first week of 2019 alone, 20 people were murdered. People laugh at this man for covering his identity, and surely he intended to evoke a laugh, but i'll be damned if this is not sad at the same time. Without covering his face, this man would lie face down in a ditch next to his house only to be robbed of the 20 bucks he had on him at that time